What almost all of our ears have heard in the regard of energy conservation is ‘let’s aware people through campaigns and advertisements’. But had this been an effective strategy we would now be celebrating our success in creating a greener world. Why this suggested measure could never work is owed to the fact that most campaigns heavily focus on ‘numbers’, i.e., using statistics and data to substantiate facts. While this is an inevitable requirement to prove any experimental hypothesis, we must remember that our audience is a public which is largely composed of people from varying and pretty much contrasting backgrounds like both rich & poor, educated & illiterate, and urban & rural. To prescribe the same medicine to 2 patients when the former is suffering cholera while the latter complains of headache is no sane doctor’s advice. Similarly striving to familiarise people with data and using strong scientific jargons to highlight the urgency of the issue is rather a big distraction which gradually escalates into boredom and disinterest of the target audience in the main topic.

But then aren’t gimmicks like advertisements creative and thus, eye-catching? Well, they are, but are the attention spans of people long enough to assimilate what the advertisement is trying to convey to them? Also, even if they’re attentive, how do we ascertain that they would ‘actually’ apply in their ‘real’ lives what they’re being told to in the ‘virtual’ advertisement? There’s no real guarantee that seeing a big movie star using a solar panel would induce the masses to imitate the same nor do we have any registered cases where information passed on to the public via media could ensure the timely completion of a task since if so would have been the case then today the governments around the world wouldn’t have to struggle so much to make people declare their incomes and thus, extract taxes or persuade people to bring their children for ‘free’ polio drops, ads that frequently feature the icons of the film and fashion world.

Walking in rallies or holding placards saying ‘save energy’ doesn’t entail that people are ‘actually’ involved in or have sincerely comprehended what they are doing. Sometimes socio-psychological factors are at play. Peer pressure or the will to look well-informed (though one is actually not) or the hunger for social mileage are incentives sufficient enough to make anyone wear a green t-shirt in support of greener technologies. Why I say this is because if people were really aware and thus, eager to conserve energy, would we have to write this essay today exploring how we could motivate them to conserve energy? Even we know that our past efforts have gone in vain and so, we are trying to explore newer avenues to inspire people to give energy conservation a ‘seriously serious’ thought. So, it’s high time now to bid goodbye to those golden ideas of the good old days because with the passage of time, iron rusts and stagnant water befouls, and so do ideas since this contemporary world is fast revolving and rapidly changing.

So, how do we motivate people to conserve energy?

Firstly, it’s understandable that economic factors can significantly influence major choices that we make in life. As the law of demand says ‘price and demand are inversely proportional to each other, i.e., when price rises, demand falls and vice-versa’, let rising prices of energy induce people to conserve energy since we all are very sensitive to anything that would burn a big hole in our pockets. Experts are also of the opinion that raising the prices of energy facilities like electricity and eliminating the subsidies given in such sectors would force people to act more judiciously.

Secondly, technology has a major role to play. Most of us, now-a-days, can be found immersed in our little ‘smart’ phones and other ‘smart’ devices. So, why not use those ‘smart’ gadgets to bolster ‘smarter’ eco-conscious moves like energy conservation? Smart gizmos manufacturers could set regular reminders or subtle notifications asking innocent yet insightful questions such as ‘did you switch off the lights?’or its likewise. Just like smart devices can now track your fitness progress, mechanisms to track your energy conservation status should be developed by tech companies. Since these days gadgets are intoxicating enough to influence our lifestyles and that we can barely leave our gadgets unattended even for a second, constant updates about our energy consciousness would persuade, prompt, and press us to conserve energy.

Thirdly, it must be made mandatory for every student to avail the school bus service. That would save us tonnes of fuel. Employers must also provide monthly/yearly transit cards for metro/bus to their employees to motivate them to avail public transport and thus reduce both road traffic and unnecessary energy consumption.

Fourthly, pressure cookers must be made a compulsory purchase along with a cooktop or a cooking cylinder. This will cut the amount of energy lost or basically wasted when people cook in utensils without lids and thus end up using a lot more cooking gas than should usually be required.

But finally, it all condenses down to ‘morality’. We all know that following traffic rules are important but still risk being fined/hit by jumping the lights. Similarly we all know that the health of ‘our’ environment is degrading yet we choose to remain deaf ears/closed-eyed to the issue for no good reason other than ‘why should I?’. But why not ‘you’? Do you belong to a different planet that you should not be subjected to certain fundamental duties that every human being is obligated to perform for the planet? Be conscientious and exempt from mis/overusing energy. Ultimately, your moral standards determine your social status and image if that’s what you’re most concerned about. So, the best way to motivate people do anything, be it energy conservation or environmental activism, is to encourage them to inculcate ‘integrity’ because to educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to the society.